(Ph. D. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The issues regarding the determinants of agricultural production and food supply are currently of great interest in developing countries. This, in turn, has led to the undertaking of this study focusing on the effectiveness of incentives that can be offered within the agricultural sector to boost production. The study aims to model the supply response of key agricultural commodities to price incentives, price risk and non-price incentives. Special focus is given to four major grain crops, namely; maize, wheat, sorghum and barley, which are of strategic interest to South Africa. The emphasis of the study is on two significant aspects of agricultural supply response: First, an attempt is made to determine the level of price risk among the selected grain crops using two distinct price risk measures. Second, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag-Error Correction Model (ARDL-ECM) approach to cointegration is used to estimate the responsiveness of grain producers to price risk, price incentives and non-price incentives. Annual historical time series data of 49 observations for the period 1970 to 2018 is used in the analysis. Data is tested for stationarity using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test and the Dickey-Fuller Generalised Least Square (DF-GLS) detrending test. The empirical results reveal that grain supply in South Africa is reasonably responsive to price incentives. However, the degree of responsiveness is low and varies among different crops. Depending on the crop, the results show that own price supply elasticities range from about 0.24 to 0.75. Supply elasticities for nonprice factors are much higher, indicating that non-price incentives (i.e. rainfall, fertiliser, technology) are better production drivers than price incentives in South Africa. Thus, instead of regarding price mechanisms as being the only tools to promote agricultural production, it is concluded that further expansion of irrigation facilities and encouraging the adoption of drought-resistant varieties will stimulate grain production. The results underscore the relevance of price risk in determining production output and show that greater price risk leads to reduced production levels, particularly for maize and barley. In light of such evidence, any policy initiatives undertaken to stabilise the grain industry should look into proposing packages (i.e., forward contracts, futures contracts, contract farming) that reduce the negative impacts of price volatility in grain commodity markets

Abstract The purpose of this paper is attempt to build and test the model of consumer behavior, using data communication on the mobile phone. Despite the explosive growth of 2nd generation mobile system (GSM) and rapidly increasing number of consumers who use media (such as photos or access the website) and try to get information they want. We adopt four dimensions to build the structural model of consumer behavior, including need for cognition, product attributes, price factors and purchase intention, and define them as unobserved variables in the LISERL. Finally, we perform relative strength in the Path analysis showing causal model. For model analysis, there are two phase to implement as follows: Firstly, we use Confirmatory Factors Analysis (CFA) to explore the correlation between unobserved (latent) and observed variables. Secondly, the relative relations of four unobserved variables will be confirmed by identification, estimation, test and model-fitting in the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We expect that the model of consumer behavior will be appropriately inferred and explain to 3rd mobile communication (3G) in the future.

This thesis deals with understanding drivers influencing the end price of fuel in the Czech Republic and ramifications for relevant companies. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of all relevant elements have been influencing end prices of gasoline and diesel during last 8 years, understand their leverage and uncover which of those were the most important for this development. These are then researched using mainly graphical analysis and basic statistical tools. The delivery is that both prices of gasoline and diesel are highly correlated with the price development of crude oil and the prices of their respective commoditized barges expressed in the nominal value of CZK. It was also discovered that there are visible tendencies for asymmetrical pricing reaction and reaction lags, which could serve as a basis for a follow-up work. Based on these findings several conclusive recommendations for relevant companies were built and delivered.

Thesis (M. Sc. Agriculture (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The South African dairy industry is approximately 0.5% of the global production. The production of milk contributes to exports, manufacturing, employment, food security and development of other producers of agricultural products such as maize and soya bean. Following the deregulation of the agricultural markets in 1996, the dairy industry has seen a decline in the number of producers, with Milk Producer Organisation noting that between 2008 and 2015 there has been a decline of 58%. Therefore, the decline in producers necessitates the need to understand the nature and factors that influence the remaining producers to continue producing. This study, therefore, was undertaken to examine the supply response of milk production to price and non-price factors in South Africa using the Nerlovian Partial adjustment model. In that regard, the historical data for the period of 1996 to 2014 was used and analysed in Eviews 10 software. The short-run and Long-run elasticities of milk production were found to be inelastic. The results of the study further indicated that milk production was responsive to changes in price of beef, technology, previous production, and temperature. Given the study findings, thus recommendations made are that technological research and advancement, such as animal cross breeding is necessary to improve production of milk in the country. Furthermore, better price incentives such as price floors and subsidies are necessary in the industry, to encourage more milk production and reduce likelihood of farmers to switch from milk to beef, given the changes in price.

The thesis "Comparison of Family House Prices in Selected Locations in the District of Karviná in 2016 and 2017" deals with the awarding of the selected family house at the usual price established in 2016 and 2017 and the determination of the price difference in these years. The family house is fictitious at the beginning in one of the selected locations of the district of Karviná and is then placed in 3 other selected localities. The usual price is determined by comparison. Comparison is made with similar family homes offered for sale in real estate ads. The price determined for 2016 for the year 2017 is determined according to the valuation regulations. In the theoretical part of the thesis are defined and explained the basic important concepts related to valuation and methods of valuation are approximated. In the practical part of the thesis are elaborated various methods of valuation for the years 2016 and 2017 for chosen RD located in selected locations of Karviná district, namely the town of Orlová, the statutory city of Havířov, the town of Bohumín and the village of Petrovice near Karviná. The output of the practical part of the thesis is a comparison of the prices of the usual and discovered ones and they are evaluated by the factors that make the individual prices change.